Gomez' great day

Mario repays club’s faith with deadly display

Created on 17-10-2010 at 00:00 AM

Things began looking up for Mario Gomez on 1 October: in training for the trip to Dortmund, every shot of his went in. Ten days later, he scored for Germany in Kazakhstan, claiming his first international goal in three years. And then there was the miracle rescue of the miners in Chile, where one of the lucky survivors was a certain Mario Gomez. The striker felt his luck was turning: “I knew today’s game would be good for me.”

Gomez the pro footballer netted all three goals in FCB’s 3-0 victory over Hannover, his first in the Bundesliga in eight months, and his first hat-trick for Munich. “Greetings to Chile,” was his first reaction after the match, “the oldest man rescued was Mario Gomez, and a total of 33 men came to the surface.” Mario wears the number 33 at Bayern. “It can’t have been coincidence that I started scoring again today, it must have been fate, although the fact it was a hat-trick was a touch of hocus-pocus.”